"Using social media is no longer a choice for those who wish to remain relevant and engaged" - Discuss...

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Permalink Reply by Lorna Parsons on July 28, 2009 at 11:15am

This is the age old bugbear of mine.... how do we convince the sceptics....? The article gives a useful insight into what he considers to be the best way of approaching the argument. Start at the beginning by asking "Do you remember doing your job without email and cell phones?".

What I'm finding is that people want to see evidence of how these tools have worked for others and why it's a good idea. In this current climate people want facts and figures - i'm going to try and tackle this as part of my presentation at Be2camp Brum.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Carroll on July 28, 2009 at 5:13pm

Maybe it's the sceptics that are right? With most things you will get the early adopters (just look around here ;)) then the utility adopters and finally the passive adopters. An important thing to remember is that the generation now coming into the workplace doesn't know of a world without Facebook, never mind a VCR. It will change in time as the tools seep into the day to day mundanity of work and home.

But maybe there is something that we should keep an eye on - whether these tools are relevant and useful. We'll usually find that simplicity is what wins over. Just look at SMS and Twitter. I've just been in Facebook and frankly it's become so big and unwieldy that it's boring me now. This means that unless the tools are genuinely useful they will fall by the wayside along with the paperless office.

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Permalink Reply by Su Butcher on August 12, 2009 at 8:58am

I entirely agree with Tony:

Tony Carroll said:

Maybe it's the sceptics that are right? ... unless the tools are genuinely useful they will fall by the wayside along with the paperless office.

and Lorna (looking forward to seeing your presentation Lorna!) in that it is about sceptics.
Sometimes also its difficult for the enthusiasts to break through purely because they are enthusiasts and this puts people off. One of my colleagues has recently joined Linkedin (and it wasn't because I persuaded him, he went to a networking event and saw someone else give a presentation which used one of my networks as a good example!)

With any new venture (and of course this applies in business) it is essential to get in the shoes of the people who need to be convinced and understand what their perspective is. They have to have a reason (as Richard White would say, a PAIN) to do something differently.

With sustainability, legislation helps get things moving. With social media its going to be hard facts.
When did you last make money out of it? Lets share some examples.

Here's mine:
I made a friend on Twitter. I followed him because he talked to me about architecture and architects. We had non-specific conversations for a while, including about cats (we both like cats and mine died). Then he picked up on our hotel work, and I picked up on his expert consultancy financing hotels and finding operators. He is meeting the head of my company to discuss a project next month. This will make us both money. The end.


I quite like this slideshow (not for people who object to offensive language though!):

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

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